How are you wired up?
04/01/12 14:41 Filed in: Philosophy | Business
It’s been quite interesting unveiling DropSwitch to people for the first time. Although the vast majority of the people we showed it to first ‘got it’ completely if not instantly there were a few unusual responses that really make you wonder how people are wired up and how they manage to run successful businesses.
I’m not sure which was the most amazing but two of the most baffling answers I got I would characterize as the ‘Apple Kool Aid’ and ‘Ostrich’ responses… See what you think.
People don’t like change, they find comfort from the familiar so when I found a distributor who said ‘it works’ in relation to shipping boxes all over the world and, I assume, thought it would continue to. He saw no need to be proactive, that his idea was ‘working’ but falling a long way short of what is possible now and almost certainly won’t work before too long - and then where will he be? I presume he hasn’t even considered what his rivals might do - if they can automatically offer hundreds of titles, instantly, at no cost his ‘box shifting’ operation might look pretty lame by comparison. Will they share the same intransigence and stick with him? I don’t think I’m sticking my neck out to say no, they won’t ‘sponsor’ his inability to move on and love of meaningless boxes that cost the Earth (in many ways!) and just make it difficult to do anything. I guess he’ll learn, but when will the penny drop? Probably when it’s too late to do anything about it.
My personal fave though is the ‘Apple Kool Aid’ response. For many years I’ve thought that the internet was the ultimate tool for self-inflicted paranoia. People have long accepted the power of advertising but I believe there is an even greater potential for self-inflicted delusion because we all tend to believe what we read on the net more than we should. OK Wikipedia everyone knows you always have to take with a pinch of salt but straight, plain talking honesty is also the preserve of a few, specially-themed sites rather than the norm too. It’s like when you meet people at trade shows - everything is always ‘amazing’ whatever is really going on. In a different forum you’ll get something nearer reality but when it’s all ‘hanging out’ the defenses go up. There’s nothing more public than the internet so it’s not surprising your honest take on your own business doesn’t bear comparison to anything you see on-line. So who better than Apple on giving the right impression on-line? Of course you couldn’t get much more gloss of success but the failures are equally rapidly glossed over too. So really I shouldn’t be surprised when you find people who have completely given up, that Apple offer this or that and ‘resistance is futile’. There always has to be an alternative, another way and you’d like to think the people who can actually offer it, who used to *be* it could at least muster the wherewith all to do something! But some of them have been so overwhelmed by big businesses like Apple they can’t even imagine an alternative. If nothing else they should focus on the one thing they will always be, small, and make that an asset. But let’s face it they’re not going to be part of the solution anyway, they’re a lost cause.
Thankfully there are the very vast majority of us that are inspired by the likes of Apple and driven onwards to do something if not bigger, certainly better, different and an alternative that works in a way that suits us not them. These are the people who’ve loved DropSwitch and what it can do for them, I believe these are the people that are are building the future rather than resigning themselves to the present.
I’m not sure which was the most amazing but two of the most baffling answers I got I would characterize as the ‘Apple Kool Aid’ and ‘Ostrich’ responses… See what you think.
People don’t like change, they find comfort from the familiar so when I found a distributor who said ‘it works’ in relation to shipping boxes all over the world and, I assume, thought it would continue to. He saw no need to be proactive, that his idea was ‘working’ but falling a long way short of what is possible now and almost certainly won’t work before too long - and then where will he be? I presume he hasn’t even considered what his rivals might do - if they can automatically offer hundreds of titles, instantly, at no cost his ‘box shifting’ operation might look pretty lame by comparison. Will they share the same intransigence and stick with him? I don’t think I’m sticking my neck out to say no, they won’t ‘sponsor’ his inability to move on and love of meaningless boxes that cost the Earth (in many ways!) and just make it difficult to do anything. I guess he’ll learn, but when will the penny drop? Probably when it’s too late to do anything about it.
My personal fave though is the ‘Apple Kool Aid’ response. For many years I’ve thought that the internet was the ultimate tool for self-inflicted paranoia. People have long accepted the power of advertising but I believe there is an even greater potential for self-inflicted delusion because we all tend to believe what we read on the net more than we should. OK Wikipedia everyone knows you always have to take with a pinch of salt but straight, plain talking honesty is also the preserve of a few, specially-themed sites rather than the norm too. It’s like when you meet people at trade shows - everything is always ‘amazing’ whatever is really going on. In a different forum you’ll get something nearer reality but when it’s all ‘hanging out’ the defenses go up. There’s nothing more public than the internet so it’s not surprising your honest take on your own business doesn’t bear comparison to anything you see on-line. So who better than Apple on giving the right impression on-line? Of course you couldn’t get much more gloss of success but the failures are equally rapidly glossed over too. So really I shouldn’t be surprised when you find people who have completely given up, that Apple offer this or that and ‘resistance is futile’. There always has to be an alternative, another way and you’d like to think the people who can actually offer it, who used to *be* it could at least muster the wherewith all to do something! But some of them have been so overwhelmed by big businesses like Apple they can’t even imagine an alternative. If nothing else they should focus on the one thing they will always be, small, and make that an asset. But let’s face it they’re not going to be part of the solution anyway, they’re a lost cause.
Thankfully there are the very vast majority of us that are inspired by the likes of Apple and driven onwards to do something if not bigger, certainly better, different and an alternative that works in a way that suits us not them. These are the people who’ve loved DropSwitch and what it can do for them, I believe these are the people that are are building the future rather than resigning themselves to the present.